What on Earth is a Coyote Tomato? I listed it as lycopersicum but also saw it as lycopersicon, a cousin. It is described with so many different characteristics that I have to discount those calling it an heirloom, because heirlooms breed true for many years. The descriptions are too varied for “heirloom” credibilty. It is also called “wild” and I believe it is a wild variety with broad genetic diversity and a lot of variation. I have never grown a Coyote Tomato, I look forward to testing it under my conditions. Since I expect a warmer year, that also improves tomato production here. For those of you that get 100+ temperatures, tomatoes do not set fruit well above 95°F. Dallas was so hot for months, that I provided my tomato plants with afternoon shade and managed tomato production through the hottest months. Not sure if it ever gets above 95°F here. Not recently.

The area of agreement: Coyote is a large indeterminate vine that produces vast quantities of tiny tomatoes about 1/2 inch in diameter.

Areas of disagreement: Coyote Tomato seems to carry the genetic diversity that has some mature in 50 days and others in 90 days, plus everything in between. Size is generally closer to 10 feet, but some say more like 4 feet. Sets fruit at high temperatures, but also tolerates cool night temperatures. Color from ivory to brilliant yellow. Taste from mud to candy!

It is an open pollinated tomato, meaning it is more genetically diverse than a hybrid. Greater variation allows plants to slowly adapt to local growing conditions and differences in climate from year to year. That it grows wild in the mountains of Mexico is amazing.

I am excited about getting a wild tomato and hope it’s adaptability will allow prolific tomato production here in the mountains with cool nights and sometimes hot days.

Market economy tomatoes have been bred for a single harvest (determinate), to survive shipping, and long term storage. Complex flavors and sweetness have been lost along the way. Coyote is not a storage or shipping tomato, it is an eat ripe off the vine tomato. Once it starts producing, I expect it to produce until frost.

I wish I were set up to grow more Coyote Tomatoes, but three maximum this year. Carrots are a good companion to tomatoes, and I will plant them in the same bed. A few garlic cloves as well.

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About rebeccatreeseed

I am a naturalist raised by naturalists. Treeseed is my earned name, while Rebecca is my birth name. I am of Northern European descent, with a quarter Irish.quarter thrown in. I suspect I was a product of northern invaders into Ireland into Ireland. but hard to say since DNA disproved the family story about Apache blood! I have found some odd ancestors to replace them.
Last year I bought 5 acres of pinyon-juniper forest on the side of a mountain in Santa Fe County, New Mexico. I am fulfilling a lifetime dream of a cabin in the mountains and a food forest that will feed me and local wildlife. I want to share this new phase of my life with others that might be interested.